The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), otherwise known as drones, is a growing market and their use for multiple purposes is expected to grow exponentially within the next few years. UAVs can be used for any number of purposes. UAVs can fly over parts of land to give aerial views of land for planning purposes.
Currently, autonomous UAVs are given a mission directive. The mission directive may be any set of instructions to be fully executed by the UAV. As one example, an autonomous UAV may be given a flight path and a set of tasks to perform while flying on the flight path. The tasks may be any type of task, such as photographing a specific landscape or delivering a package. The UAV executes the mission directive by flying along the flight path and by executing all assigned tasks during flight. The standard flight path for the UAV is designed such that the origination point and the destination point are the same place.
The current state of the art is limited though. The use of a UAV is limited to the geographic range of half of its battery power. When a UAV begins its flight and flies straight from its point of origin, the UAV cannot go any farther away from its point of origin when its battery power is at fifty percent. The UAV must retain the last fifty percent of its battery power for the return flight back to the point of origin. Thus, problems are presented when a UAV sustains damage and cannot complete its mission directive or a mission directive must be executed which is beyond the range of a single battery charge for a UAV.
UAVs, when operating in remote locations, require a mechanism to recharge battery powers in an autonomous manner. Systems may be developed to change batteries on the UAVs but fresh, fully charged batteries are required to supply to the UAV. This system is impractical and limited in usefulness as fully charged batteries may not be available. In addition, such a system requires a specialized UAV to be utilized.
In the current state of the art there is an assumption that a mission directive is to be executed by a single UAV. Therefore, if there are any problems or issues that develop with that UAV when it is executing its mission directive, the entire mission directive is compromised or delayed. What is needed is a system whereby a UAV may complete a partial set of tasks in a mission directive and transfer the remaining set of tasks in a mission directive to a second UAV when the first UAV is unable to do so. Furthermore, in this system of multiple UAVs, what is needed is a method of assigning an initial mission directive to an appropriately chosen UAV.